Tornado Outbreak of July 18-21, 2018
The '''Tornado Outbreak of July 18-21, 2018 'was a deadly tornado outbreak that caused catastrophic damage around the United States. In all, 719 people died, another 7,247 were injured and $25.44 billion (2018 USD) in damages was done. A total of 56 EF0's, 43 EF1's, 30 EF2's, 17 EF3's, 13 EF4's, and 3 EF5's occurred during the outbreak. The costliest tornado was the Tushka, OK EF5 with an estimated cost of $3.91 billion dollars (2018 USD). The deadliest tornado was also the Tushka, OK EF5 on July 18th that killed 296 people. The strongest tornado was also the Tushka, OK EF5 with 286 mph winds on July 18, and the weakest tornado was Montrose, Kansas EF0 with under 30 mph winds on July 21. The outbreak was the 8th of 2018, with most outbreaks having over 100 tornadoes. It is regarded as an outbreak with a lot of large, violent tornadoes. 63 tornadoes were rated EF2+. While 33 tornadoes were rated EF3+. A total number of 99 tornadoes were rated EF0 or EF1. A number of 47 tornadoes were rated either EF2 or EF3. While 16 tornadoes were rated EF4 or EF5. The outbreak mostly occurred in the Midwest for the first two days before shifting to the Northeast. Most surveyors compared some twisters in this outbreak to the 2018 Super Outbreak that caused catastrophic damage to similar areas. Most deaths happened from the 3 EF5's in Oklahoma, however, deaths also occurred from EF2's, EF3's, and EF4's during the outbreak. It is currently the sixth costliest tornado outbreak ever. Synopsis Daily Statistics Notable Tornadoes ''Main Article: List of tornadoes in the Tornado Outbreak of July 18-21, 2018 July 18 Tushka, Oklahoma Main Article: 2018 Tushka, Oklahoma Tornado At 11:53 AM CDT, the funnel cloud that produced the Tushka EF5 touched down 4 miles west of Soper. As an EF1 with a record forward speed of 99 miles per hour (159 km/h). Entering the town of Lane as an EF3. Immediately, with 165 mph winds, the tornado caused severe damage to multiple houses around Lane, killing 4 and injuring 41 in the process. Tracking as an EF4 near Tushka, another 124 were killed long with 146 injured when the twister stalled over 2 neighborhoods in a span of 4 minutes. While entering Tushka, another 121 were killed along with 292 injured when 4 restaurants, 5 neighborhoods, and 3 car dealerships were completely destroyed. Most of the cars in the area of the town were either found 0.5 miles to 14 miles away from their original location and found mangled beyond recognition, while other cars were never located. Another 47 were killed when the tornado hit a factory, completely leveling the facility and killing most of the workers inside. Another 17 were injured. 67 were injured when another neighborhood was hit at high-end EF2 strength. As the tornado was manually weakening, then last 15 were injured in a mobile home park was moderately damaged. At 1:48 PM CDT, the monster EF5 dissipated 2.1 miles west of Coleman after leaving 296 dead, 561 injured, and nearly $4 billion dollars in damage. Originally rated an EF4, the tornadoes path was so long that it took surveyors nearly a month to write the final reports. The final rating is widely accepted because of the fact that hundreds of well-built homes were leveled and multiple mobile radar trucks recording wind speeds from 61 to 286 mph. The following day, the NWS gave the rating an EF5 due to extreme damage in Tushka. The path reached 97.88 miles long and 2.1 miles wide. Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Main Article: 2018 Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Tornado At 11:57 AM CDT, the funnel cloud that produced the monster touched down 17.6 miles miles west of Scraper as a thick EF2. 6 were killed along with 2 dozen injured when the high-end EF2 hit multiple mobile homes. With wind speeds exceeding 140 mph, the EF3 caused another 4 deaths along with 6 injuries when the mid-range EF3 caused severe damage to multiple homes. As a high-end EF4, suburbs of Broken Arrow sustained devastating damage, 48 were killed along with 194 injuries when the twister stalled over a neighborhood of well built homes. Another 59 were killed when the monster completely leveled multiple neighborhoods of well built homes. An estimated over 3,000 vehicles turned out missing after the EF5 completely destroyed multiple car dealerships along with cars on Interstate 44 as it was shifting away from Broken Arrow. The tornado finally weakened out and dissipated at 12:34 PM CDT right outside of Verdigris after killing 121, injuring 456, and causing $5.67 billion (2018 USD) in damages. Doppler radar recorded wind speeds between 54 and 277 mph, easily putting the tornado into EF5 intensity. The following day, the NWS sent a few survey teams to survey the damage. The final rating was an EF5. The damage path reached 16.73 miles long and 1.6 miles wide. Keyes, Oklahoma Main Article: 2018 Keyes, Oklahoma Tornado At 1:29 PM CDT, the funnel cloud that would produce the EF5 touched down near Optima with a forward speed between 65 and 96 mph. As an EF1 hundreds of trees were downed along with a mobile home being badly damaged, injuring 6 and killing 1. As an EF2 nearing Keyes, 17 were killed and 175 were injured when the tornado completely destroyed a mobile home resort. At 2:17 PM CDT, multiple mobile radar trucks recorded wind speeds between 225 (362 km/h) and 268 mph (431 km/h), indicating EF5 strength. EF5 damage was found 3.1 miles east of Keyes when multiple subdivisions were leveled, killing 61 and injuring 427. Another 6 were killed with 132 injured when another subdivision was leveled at EF5 strength. The last 3 were killed along with 3 more injured when 2 well-built houses were completely swept off their foundations. At 3:07 PM, with the tornado dying out quickly, over a dozen more houses were damaged from EF0 to EF2 damage. At 3:12 PM CDT after being on the ground for over 100 minutes, the tornado dissipated 4.5 miles east of Boise City after killing 88, injuring 743 and causing $2.4 billion in damages. The following day, the NWS sent out multiple teams to survey the damage. The final rating was an EF5 due to extreme damage along the path. The final path length was 67.77 miles long and 2.2 miles wide. Troy, Oregon Main Article: 2018 Troy, Oregon Tornado July 19 De Smet, South Dakota Main Article: 2018 De Smet, South Dakota Tornado Kingfisher, Oklahoma Main Article: 2018 Kingfisher, Oklahoma Tornado Dayton, Indiana Main Article: 2018 Dayton, Indiana Tornado July 20 July 21 Jacksonville, Florida Main Article: 2018 Jacksonville, Florida Tornado Gallery See Also * 2018 Tushka, Oklahoma Tornado * 2018 Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Tornado * 2018 Keyes, Oklahoma Tornado * 2018 Troy, Oregon Tornado Category:Outbreaks Category:Deadly Tornadoes Category:Deadly Outbreaks Category:Tornadoes of 2018 (Hitman) Category:Outbreaks of 2018 (Hitman) Category:Catastrophic Tornadoes Category:Catastrophic Outbreaks Category:Costly Tornadoes Category:Costly Outbreaks Category:Record Tornadoes Category:Tornado Records (Hitman) Category:Violent Tornadoes Category:Violent Outbreaks Category:F5/EF5 Tornadoes Category:Tornadoes (Hitman) Category:Outbreaks (Hitman) Category:Violent Tornadoes Category:Tornadoes